I'm a recently single Momma to three pre-teen girls, and a lover of anything home decor and beauty related. The House of Smiths is my own little part of the internet that allows me to share and document all of the life that happens under our roof!

6.17.2012

I promised you a striped tutorial, did I not? Well, I aim to please, so let's get on with it!

Here are the list of items I used for my stripes...

Since I wanted the stripes on this accent wall to be softer and a bit more feminine, I decided to go with even spaced lines between the painted stripes. For this reason I measured the height of my wall FIRST, and then found a number that could divide into the total, evenly.

My Wall Height = 87 inches (divided) by 3 = 29 Stripes Total.

I figured I would either be doing 3 or 4 inch stripes.

Marking off your wall is DEFINITELY the hardest, most labor intensive part of this entire project. It's not really physically or mentally hard, it's just... boring and monotonous.

Directions for Painting Lines:

- Only mark ONE line at a time. Meaning, start at your ceiling, measure 3 inches down, put a small pencil mark, and then move down your wall about 2.5 feet (horizontally). Mark 3 inches down from the ceiling again, and keep doing that, till you get to the end of the opposite side of the wall.

- Once your 3 inch points are marked, use the longest level that you possibly can hold up, connect one end of your level to one point, and the other end of the level to your next marked point. Make sure the bubble in your level is right in the middle, and then draw a faint pencil line to connect the two... continue down the wall.

- When starting the next line, use your previously marked line above, and go off of that, to measure your new 3 inch points. This will help to keep your lines consistent with each other, in case your wall or ceiling is crooked at all.

TIPS:

* Using the longest level that you can, will help the line drawing process move MUCH quicker.

* Always start at the top (towards the ceiling) when beginning your lines, because if your wall or ceiling is crooked at all and your measurements end up being a bit off in the end, your "oops line" (that may only be about 2.5 inches or a bit smaller than the rest of the lines) will be on the bottom, instead of at the top.

- Once your lines are all marked off, it's time for tape!

Because we had just painted the entire room only about 24 hours before, I used Scotch Blue Advanced Delicate Surface tape, to make sure that when I pulled the tape off after the stripes were painted, I wouldn't have any damage to my base coat of paint underneath.

* I bought the 2 inch tape (the largest they had) so I had to double up my tape to fill up that 3 inch line.

This process only took about 30 minutes and for some reason was really therapeutic. ha!

Originally I had thought that we would paint the stripes white and gray, but I didn't want the look to be TOO stark, so I just moved down on my color swatch (again, to the Repose Gray) and decided to paint the stripes one shade darker. It worked out perfectly, because I had just enough paint left from our office, to finish this wall as well!

* We use a satin finish on all of our wall color, and semi-gloss on all of our white trim and doors.

- Using a non-textured roller and small cutting brush I started painting my stripes. The best part about THIS step, is that you don't have to be too careful, since all of the wall you DON'T want painted is completely covered!

* I painted two good coats of the Repose Gray on my exposed wall stripes.

- Immediately after you're done applying the second coat of paint, you can remove your painters tape, to reveal your beautiful new stripes!

I have to admit that I did all the measuring, taping and painting on my own, but when it came to the big reveal, I let the twins get in on the action.

:)

They had been by my side the whole time. Asking... "Is it done yet?" and "Can we see the stripes now?" So letting them peel the tape off the wall was really fun for me to watch, because they were literally giggling with excitement over each new stripe that appeared.

I have to be honest and say, that I love, LOVE, L.O.V.E the way that this accent wall turned out! It gives just the right amount of "drama", and I know that it will act as the perfect backdrop for the rest of the plans that I have for this space.

As I'm sure you all know, decorating a room and making a space even more beautiful in my home, is one of the best feelings to me. But being able to do ALL of that, WITH my two, sweet, oldest girls, makes this journey so much MORE fun and rewarding. The sense of pride that exudes from them every time we go shopping, or make plans for something new and cool in their "big-girl" room, has got to be one of the best things that I've been able to experience as a Mom, so far in this stage of my girls' life. I love the feeling of working together to accomplish something really meaningful and special to ALL of us.

So that being said, we're continuing to work hard on the rest of the room. We've picked out some accent furniture, bought a couple of fun, small decor pieces with the remaining garage sale money that we earned this Summer, and are DYING to show you more, as things start coming together!

coming up next...

The PERFECT White-Ruffly-Comfy-Princess bed!

We're just waiting on a 'sassy-pink' headboard to arrive, and then we'll share ALL the details.

A memory they will carry in their hearts forever... blessed little ones to have YOU as their mom. Imagine me squealing with delight! I love the stripes and can't wait to see the new "Big-Girl" room! Awesome job Girls!!

Oh this looks so gorgeous!!!! Thanks for the tutorial and your twins are so adorable! I totally know that satisfied Mommy feeling you're talking about!!! My little one is 5 and loves to help around the house :)

You probably already know this, but if you use your finger to rub clear caulk along your edges, wait 6 hours, paint, then peel the tape off immediately, you get super crisp perfect lines every time. It's magical.

This is absolutely wonderful! I would love it if you could post a tutorial about how to paint chevron and make it even! It took me forever to figure out how to do it, and surely there is a better way than my method. ;)

Giirrrrrl, You made painting stripes look incredibly easy! Somehow, I don't think I could do it that well.

I'm lovin these pics of your twins helping and how happy they are. I have two grown-up girls and I know how fast this time with them is going to go. You are one smart Mom, Mrs. Smith - Keepin them close and involved in your projects is genius. Cute Cute family.Jeannie-JBhttp://jbsvintage.com

Wow. You did such a great job!!! I love the pics of your girls. They're very photogenic. I'm going to try this on my son's wall. You mentioned making the stripes look more feminine. How would you make them more masculine?

Great job! I'm in love with that look! Someone who had stripes on her wall (that was very textured) told me that on a textured wall to keep the paint from bleeding, you take a small amount of silicone on your finger and rub it along the edges of the tape. Great tip I thought! Now I want to do stripes in my 15 yr old daughter's room. Thanks for the share. I love how the girls got to tear the tape off!

It looks fantastic!!! I really Love LOVE L.O.V.E. the way it turned out too! I can't wait to see how the rest of the room comes together...I always feel with rooms that I am "in the process" of decorating that I wish I had a printer attached to my brain that could print out my vision of the room for everyone else to see along with me!!!

Oh my gosh, it gives me a headache just looking at the level. Will you pretty pretty please come paint my stripes for me??! lol It look fabulous, and I love that shade of gray. You don't often see stripes that width, seems like everyone always does big huge ones and I *love* the look of the size you did. I've also been stressing over finding the perfect SW gray for my new house and that looks perfect, I'm going to pin it right now! Lovely work, girl!

LOVE this tutorial! Thank you for posting this. I am totally in love with this accent wall as well, the color is perfect. The grey looks like theres a nice reflective shine to it...perfect for the princess room! Can't wait to see more updated room photos!

I was readying about the twins having twin beds but only sleeping in one. Reminded me of when my twin and I were young, we did the same thing! We only had one crib and when we got our twin beds we still wanted to sleep together. We slept together until my twin got married. Your twins are darling.

So cute and can't wait to see the sassy headboard, but it should be mentioned that this technique will only work on smooth walls. Any sort of texture and you have to seal the tape first with modge podge, a clear sealant, or the base paint color.

Oh my gosh Shelly hurry up with the reveal! I am dying over here!!! Lol but really I can't WAIT to see your fresh ideas for the twins space. Need some inspiration to finally finish up my 7 year olds room.

Hi Shelley! I've been reading your blog for some time but now that we've moved into our home, I stop by your blog constantly! I feel so overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done but reading HOS gives me the inspiration and energy to keep going and I wanted to thank you for that. :D

I also love those gray paint swatches you posted! I might just have a go at a striped wall!

I want to do this to my living area so bad!! I've been consistently trying to convince my husband how visually pleasing it would be for almost a year...but still no luck. I love the use of the smaller lines too - pretty!

Love this! But, I really kept going back to the first picture of the post to look at how AMAZING you look! Good job! Keep it up :) You're an inspiration- I lost about 25lbs but then have hit a plateau for a few months now...

These turned out so well! I also did some grey/white stripes in my house (though I did them vertically... So much more annoying). Reading through this post and seeing how your grey and white stripes looked definitely helped me convince my husband that it would look good in our bathroom! Thanks, and I love your blog!

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